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Mor'du
Mor'du is the main antagonist of Pixar's 13th full-length animated feature film Brave, and the main protagonist of Pixar's short The Legend of Mor'du. His vocal effects were provided by Frank Welker, who also played Stripe in the Gremlins series, Crazy Robot in Dexter's Laboratory and The Mouse in MouseHunt. Personality When Mor'du was a human, he had once possessed a close familial bond with his father and three younger brothers. However, he was confident in his strength but confused this for character and thus led to his arrogance, a trait that caused him to struggle with his loved ones. Like Merida, he let his pride control his actions and clashed with his family, but unlike Merida, he was willing to let hatred and desire get the better of him instead of realizing his mistakes, and mend what was left of his broken family. His desire for power drove him to go far enough to start a violent war, and then ultimately killed his own brothers in cold blood. As a black bear, Mor'du's hatred and rage manifested through his actions and carnage, especially when he slaughtered his remaining family. However, after fighting his own men, his violent and dangerous nature would eventually consume what was left of his humanity, leaving his human mind and conscience buried deep within the mind of his cursed form. As a result, Mor'du was left as a cruel, vicious, malevolent, destructive and bloodthirsty monster who was incapable of sapience. His uncontrollable violence was so prominent that even a young woman could fall victim to his murderous intentions and all of Scotland knew and feared him. When he was finally killed, the spirit of the eldest prince was finally released and, apparently learning from his tyrannical and oppressive mistakes, and what his intense lust for power had turned him into, thanked Merida with respect for releasing him and moved on peacefully to the afterlife; becoming a will-o-wisp. Appearance Mor'du is a monstrous, 13-foot tall black bear with huge claws, a misaligned jaw, and long sharp teeth. His body is covered in scars and broken weapon hilts and arrows. Mor'du lacks fur on his back, suggesting that he had been burned in the past. History Origins Mor'du was once a human prince and the eldest of his four brothers. All of them were sons of a wise king ruling a peaceful kingdom. As time grew, the eldest prince was known for his strength, which he mistook for character. At the king's deathbed, he announced that he would not pass the crown to the eldest, but rather divide the kingdom among the four sons so that they could rule together peacefully. However, the eldest prince felt disgraced and refused to accept this, believing that he alone should rule the kingdom. His selfishness destroyed the bond with his brothers, which resulted in a war within them and their armies. As the battle remained a bitter stalemate, the eldest prince cursed his fate and went through the woods, where he found a witch's cottage. The eldest prince convinced the witch to give him a spell that will grant him the "strength of ten men," paying her with the ring of his house. After the witch formulated the spell and put in a goblet, she warned him of making a choice: either he would fulfill his dark desire or mend the broken bonds with his brothers. Apparently taking no notice of this, the prince took the spell and lured his three younger brothers back to their father's throne-room under the false pretense of a truce. After they refused to surrender, the eldest prince drank the spell, which gave him the strength of ten men, but to his surprise, in the form of a great black bear. Though the eldest prince could have taken the chance to mend his family bond torn by his pride, he instead embraced his new form and murdered his brothers in cold blood. Victorious, he returned to command his army, but they saw only the dreaded beast and thus turned against him. As a result, the eldest prince slaughtered many of his former soldiers while the extreme few survivors fled, and the fracturing of the armies led to the kingdom's collapse. As centuries passed, the prince lost his humanity, his mind replaced with that of the beast he had become. Known as Mor'du, he wandered the woods and became notorious throughout Scotland. ''Brave'' Mor'du appears three times in the movie. He was first seen near the beginning, watching a young Merida retrieving a bow that she shot into the forest. The Will O' the Wisps were able to lead her out of the forest, but Mor'du follows her to the camp and reveals himself. Queen Elinor takes Merida to safety while King Fergus and the guards attack Mor'du. But, Mor'du shows no fear to fight them by breaking Fergus' spear, but Fergus takes out his sword to face the bear. As Elinor and Merida ride away on a horse, Fergus urges Mor'du to attack, and he lunges at Fergus, destroys his sword, and bites off his leg, and left into the forest. No one saw Mor'du since, but Fergus fought and trained for the day Mor'du returned. After many years, Merida had become a teenager, and made a deal with the same witch that cursed Mor'du so that she could change her mother's decision to make her marry one of the three princes. This caused Elinor to be transformed into a dangerous bear like Mor'du, and Will O' the Wisps led the two into the ruins of the ancient castle. Merida fell in and stumbled onto a portrait of the four brothers, including Mor'du, and found it split like the tapestry of her family. She came to the realization that Mor'du was the prince, and at that moment, Mor'du himself appears. Merida fires an arrow straight at his head, but it did no damage whatsoever. Mor'du charged at Merida as she climbed up the ruins of the castle to get to the opening. Mor'du lunged at her, but she was pulled out by Elinor. Mor'du bursted out of the ruins, but Elinor pushed a giant rock down on Mor'du, and he was caught inside the rubble, allowing Merida and Elinor to escape. However, Mor'du escaped and wandered around in the forest. He saw Merida and her baby brothers, who had also turned into bears, riding on their horse, and hid behind a tree. Watching them ride away, Mor'du follows close behind. Merida saves Elinor from getting killed by Fergus, who believed she was Mor'du, when the demon bear thundered onto the warriors and bellowed out a challenge. The lords and their warriors charged, but were knocked aside effortlessly. Fergus punched Mor'du in the jaw and challenged him to a fight, but was quickly knocked down and thrown into a pillar. As Mor'du gave a roar of victory, Merida shot him in the throat with two arrows, but they've done little damage and he pinned her to the ground. He opened his mouth and tried to devour her, but Elinor, seeing her daughter in danger, escaped from her bonds and charged at Mor'du. She tackled him, but he knocked her off him and turned his attention to Merida once more, but was challenged by Elinor. The two bears engaged a fierce fight. Mor'du was able to gain the upper hand and threw Elinor into a pillar, but she dragged him back and started to slam him up against the pillar repeatedly, but he struck her down. As Mor'du stalks towards Merida and her injured mother, the menhir falls and crushes him to death. The bear's claws protrude from under the menhir, but his death finally releases the Prince's tormented spirit, who nods thankfully to Merida and her mother before he takes on the form of a wisp and disappears. Powers and Abilities Mor'du is the strongest character in the film; he is immensely powerful and his strength is described in the whole film as "Strength of Ten Men". But he is shown to be far stronger than that; he defeated an entire army all by himself, slaughtered anyone who is on his way, easily breaks through stone, and can easily toss another bear that is almost as big as himself. In addition of his immense strength, it appeared that the very curse that turned him into monstrous bear also resulting Mor'du's bodily tissues substantially harder than that of either humans' or regular bears'. A testament of his durability is his ability to remain unfazed and tenacious in spite of having various weapons remained stuck on his back and able to shrug off everything that Scottish warriors throw at him with so much comfort. Even Elinor whom cursed in the same way with Mor'du unable to inflict significant damage to his cursed body. Even so, Mor'du's durability still have its limits and therefore, not invincible. When Elinor caused a menhir fall onto him, the resulting impact proved too much for him to survive it, and he finally dies. Trivia *Mor'du's name may come from "mortus", the Latin word for "death". It may have also come from "murh deugh", the Gaelic words for "Great Black". *Mor'du is the fourth main Pixar movie villain to actually die at the end of his film, after Hopper from A Bug's Life, Syndrome from The Incredibles, and Charles Muntz from Up, followed by Ernesto de la Cruz of Coco (though the last one was already dead). *Mor'du is the first main Pixar movie villain who never says a word onscreen. His only line, his wish for strength, is simply paraphrased by the Witch. *Mor'du is not a werebear, as a werebeast creature that can transform into a bear which is also least popular in some Norse mythology. For Mor'du to be a werebear, he would be able to resume human form, but he was cursed forever to live as a monster. **Mor'du's story may also be based on Prince Bjorn from a Norse folktake, a prince who was turned into a bear by his wicked stepmother and was killed by his father, without knowing. *Mor'du has similarities to these historical villains: **Just as Emperor Nero did, he murdered members of his own family to seize power over the throne and his selfishness and lust for power caused his kingdom to fall into ruin. **Mor'du's reign of terror is also like the Cambodian dictator Pol Pot because he refused to take responsibility for the lives and traditions of his people, murdered millions of innocent citizens without remorse, and allowed his homeland to fall into decay. *It is said in the Song of Mor'du that he has devoured dozens, including babies. Whether or not this is actually true is unknown. Regardless, this would make it one of Disney's darkest songs, as most of the time, Disney usually likes to keep a family-friendly image 24/7, only taking risks if goes according to the story. 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